Actress Anne Curtis is a keen lover of scents. She has a scent for her different moods, plus it’s something that her fans always ask her about, so it made sense for her baby blk Cosmetics to expand to this category.

According to Guttierez, blk wanted to step away from the usual offerings in the local market, balancing its scent blends with local taste. The result: four less common blends that embody Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Winter. These are made with 12% oil sourced from Dubai (while the mists are made in the UAE) as opposed to the typical target of 4 to 5%, says Gutierrez.

The scents are designed to elicit the same feelings of joy felt within those seasons. Also made from joy: the company’s first pop up store in Market! Market!, and its four “experiential” rooms representative of each scent. The interiors of each are clearly designed to attract the Instagram-savvy generation of consumers who prefer to test the product before they buy.

The packaging is monochromatic plastic, a hint at modesty both in blend and in price. I appreciated the packaging and its minimalism. Curious to see what blk is up against, I roamed around the malls to check similarly-priced fragrances. After my quick survey, I agree that the blk scents are somewhat different from popular product offerings (i.e., Bench, Plains & Prints, etc.).

Summer

Notes: pomegranate, magnolia, peony

I would describe Summer as sweet, alcoholic fruit. I find this to be the least pleasant because the smell of alcohol is more pronounced here. It reminds me of scents of my adolescence, of all-girls schools and first communions. I don’t think I’d wear this but would use it in other ways at home.

Spring

Notes: sweet pea, apple tree leaves, yellow freesias, linden blossom, white orris

I’m actually not a fan of floral scents but this is pleasantly sweet in a mature and more muted way. It still smells like a bouquet but not as cloying as other fragrances usually are.

Autumn

Notes: lily, fresh wisteria, red peony, sweet musk

My favorite of the bunch, Autumn smells of musky floral! It’s the deeper and more sensual sister of Spring, which I prefer over sweet florals.

Winter

Notes: winter jasmine, peppermint, green tea, oakmoss, white amber

Ironically, Winter is the most familiar to the Filipino scent palette - Gutierrez says as much (and I agree). It’s a soft and soothing scent in which the peppermint and green tea pull through.

Common Traits and Performance

For someone who is sensitive to scents (so sensitive that I CANNOT breathe in the detergent aisle in the grocery), I found these fragrances to be okay. However, each scent smelled of alcohol at first spray before eventually yielding the intended scent seconds later. This was consistent with other scents in similar price ranges.

The blk line of fragrances typically last four to six hours, with scents lingering on clothes while completely disappearing from the skin, so I recommend decanting to travel containers so you can reapply through the day.

Overall, the scents were a pleasant surprise and I found the pricing (P599 for 250 mL and P349 for 120 mL, or about P2.4/mL) to be quite attractive. If you want something a bit different from your usual accessible brands, then the blk Scents can be an exciting option.

Would you cop one of these scents? What do you think of blk’s expansion to other cosmetics?

Similar Stories